Pokémon Red Version (Japanese: ポケットモンスター赤Pocket Monsters: Red) and Pokémon Green Version (Japanese: ポケットモンスター緑Pocket Monsters: Green) were the first Pokémon games ever released to the public, in Japan on February 27, 1996.[1][2] Introducing the gameplay concepts that went on to provide the standard for games in the core series games, these games were eventually localized and released worldwide as Pokémon Red and Blue Versions, using a combination of the engine from the Japanese Pokémon Blue Version and the obtainable Pokémon from Red and Green. Much as would become standard, Red and Green were later joined by a solitary version, the aforementioned Blue, which slightly improved upon their features and provided the code for the international releases (Red and Blue), and eventually Pokémon Yellow, a second solitary version based on the anime.

Along the way, the player will encounter the villainous Team Rocket, a group of criminals that seek to exploit Pokémon as tools, rather than train them as friends and partners, and must defeat them to put a stop to their actions. The rival will also continuously harass the player, challenging him or her to a battle multiple times, with an increasingly powerful team. As the player's own Pokémon become more powerful, he or she draws ever closer to the Indigo Plateau.

Connectivity

The two games introduced the ability to allow players to trade Pokémon between two cartridges using a Game BoyGame Link Cable. To take fullest advantage of this feature, several Pokémon are exclusive to each game of the pair, making it required that a player trade with others in order to complete their Pokédex. The Game Link Cable also makes possible battles with another player, allowing one to pit their Pokémon against equals when their Pokémon are as powerful as they can be, at level 100. Trades done between Pokémon games in different languages are impossible in this generation, and will always result in corruption if it is attempted. This is due to the fact that the games can't automatically translate the Pokémon as there isn't enough room on either cartridge for all of the text in so many languages (a feature that would later become possible).
If a battle between two different region games is to be attempted, the battle would simply not work, with the save file left intact.

Pokémon

Each game contains pre-recorded data on 151 different species of Pokémon, including Mew, a Pokémon even Nintendo was not aware of initially.[3] However, not all Pokémon are available to the player, regardless of version; trades must occur between players in order to complete their Pokédex without the use of cheats or glitches. In addition, Mew is not normally obtainable in either game; the only legitimate way to obtain Mew is through a Nintendo sponsored event.

The following Pokémon are only obtainable in one game of this pair. In order to obtain Pokémon exclusive to the other game of this pair, they must be traded either from that game or from another compatible game of Generation I or Generation II which has that Pokémon available.

Legacy

Pocket Monsters Red and Green set the precedent for what has become a blockbuster, multi-billion dollar franchise. In Japan, Red, Green, and the third version Blue combined have sold 10.23 million copies.[4] In the United States, Pokémon Red has sold 4.83 million copies, while Pokémon Blue has sold 5.02 million copies.[5] These numbers combine to make a total of 9.85 million copies sold in the US.

Development

Pokémon Red and Green had many pre-release elements that differ from the final release, although Pokémon Red and Blue would later have several altered aspects of their own during the two-and-a-half years between the release of Red and Green, their bug-fixing release, Blue, and the release of the merger of the trio into Red and Blue for overseas markets.

An error made during development causes the Pokémon depicted during Professor Oak's introductory lecture to be a Nidorino but with the cry of a Nidorina. It was not fixed in the Japanese Blue or in Red and Blue.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack contains all of the background music and sound effects used in the games, all of which were composed solely by Junichi Masuda. This includes Pokémoncries and Pokédex entries read by "Dexter", Ash's Pokédex.

Staff

Trivia

Pre-release flyer with the earlier release date

Development of Red and Green started during 1990, making their development the longest of all Pokémon games by far.

The game's main characters, Red and Green, have several default names, among them サトシ Satoshi and シゲル Shigeru, respectively. These names come from Pokémon creator Satoshi Tajiri and his friend and fellow Nintendo developer, Shigeru Miyamoto. When the games were translated into the English Red and Blue, the default names became Red and Blue. Alternative names that could be chosen were Ash and Gary, after the anime characters that share the names Satoshi and Shigeru, respectively.

While Red and Green are the first Pokémon games released, they were not necessarily the first Pokémon trademark ever registered. Mew was the first Pokémon trademark ever applied for; the application for the Pokémon was submitted on May 9, 1990, while the application for Pocket Monsters Red and Green was submitted on September 11, 1995. Before Red and Green were granted registered trademarks on December 26, 1997, Mew (then spelled ミュー, not ミュウ) had already become the first Pokémon trademark registered, granted on March 31, 1994; ミュウ was later granted on August 6, 1999.

Mew was added to the internal data after the debugging features were removed. The programmers took a great risk in doing so, since further tests for glitches that would have been caused by adding Mew could not be done, which goes against standard programming procedures.

The games were originally scheduled for a December 21, 1995 release, according to an old Nintendo of Japan flyer.[6] This could explain the copyright year of 1995 that appears in the games' introductory sequence, and all subsequent games and official merchandise.